Memory Lane aka Adventures with a New Scanner

I finally bought a printer/scanner. I needed one for school, mostly, and had been putting it off for a while, though I’m not entirely sure why. I finally bought a really nice HP one from Target (my beloved Target, where it was 50% cheaper than at Office Depot.)

I don’t really have anything to print right now, except study guides… but MAN is having a scanner fun. When you are temporarily staying with your mother, especially in the room that she used for storage…well, you have lots of old photographs at your disposal. I’ve spent the last few hours scanning and saving the ones I like, and reminiscing.

I still blows my mind seeing happy pictures of my parents. They seperated when I was 10, and though that seems like a fair amount of time to have built memories of them together, I don’t really have many. I don’t know if it’s just because I was fairly young, or the fighting, or the ugly divorce that followed…the point is, I know them as they are now, 2 people who couldn’t seem less well matched (case in point: when my now ex met my mother for the first time, about a year after dating me and knowing my father, he said “I cannot, for the life of me, see her with YOUR DAD.”)

While going through these boxes of photos, I’ve come across cards they gave one another. All the love that was there… It’s nice to see, as a reminder that they did love one another, and strange at the same time…it’s part of a life that’s so close to me, but one that I don’t know that well. It’s jarring.

Another thing that trips me out when I see pictures of them together… just how much I look like the both of them. I am such a perfect melding of the two of their features. Makes me wonder that if they had another kid, what they would have looked like.

Ahhh… my Dad’s old Black and White Mac. I think he actually still has it somewhere in his garage. That was the first computer I ever learned how to use. I think I’m about 8 in this picture. I remember Dad once explaining to me that all Macs are Apples, but not all Apples are Macs. It made no sense to me. But my dad is a big nerd. He just hides it better now. 🙂

One of my nicest memories of my folks together was when they played Tetris on this computer. They would try to beat each other’s high scores, and would name their high scores things like “Bob is Best”, “Laurie beats Bob”, and “Allison’s mommy”. After they seperated, I would continue playing Tetris on this computer, but would quit before my score got too high, because I didn’t want to erase any of the high scores.

I also used to play this game called “The Manhole” on this computer. I actually just met someone (I forget who…oops!) just a few weeks ago who remembered this game. It was AWESOME, and trippy as hell. There was no end or goal. You just explored, down the rabbit hole (or manhole, I guess), into these rooms, passageways, and doors. I spent hours playing this crazy game. I should try and find a copy for my computer…

I’ve only been once to New York City. It’s funny, I was just talking to my Dad today, and he had just gotten back from New York for a business trip. He was telling me about all his adventures, and asked me, “How many times have you been again?” “Just the one time, Dad.” I’ve always wanted to go back.

I have a very clear memory of this day, though. I can’t tell you exactly what time of year it was (just know it was 1991, so I was 6), I just remember that I was wearing a black sweater with scottie dogs on it, and when I stepped out of the car to go to the Statue of Liberty, it struck me how…perfect the weather was. I know it seems like an odd thing to remember for 17 years, but it’s been stuck in my mind all this time. That was the day I recognized what perfect weather felt like on my skin.